Little Children

Surburban angst has been around as long as the suburbs, but that doesn't mean we understand unhappiness in the midst of plenty any better than we did in the 1950s.

The latest by Todd Field (In the Bedroom), which he adapted with Tom Perrotta (Election) from the latter's best-selling novel, gets closer than any film in recent memory to nailing "the hunger for an alternative," to quote Kate Winslet's character Sarah, a most desperate housewife.

She's a bookish thirtysomething mom living in a Boston bedroom community — a place the locals call "The Village," true to its storybook aspects. All is not well behind Sarah's white picket fence and immaculate lawn.

Sarah's husband has grown distant, lost to the sleazy charms of the Internet sex sites he cruises.

A few streets over lives Brad (Patrick Wilson), an ex-jock whose chronic unemployment has resigned him to the life of a stay-at-home dad, while his distracted filmmaker wife Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) resentfully brings home the bacon.

The only things Sarah and Brad really have in common are small children who need daily minding at the park and pool, as well as that hunger for change.

Circulating in their orbit is ex-cop Larry (Noah Emmerich), who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and a sex offender named Ronnie (Jackie Earle Haley), who is attempting to reintegrate himself with his suspicious community. Ronnie is loved only by his doting mother May (Phyllis Somerville), whom he still calls "Mommy."

How these disparate lives and threads pull together is the fascination of Little Children, a film that stays in the mind with the urgency of the lonesome train whistle that echoes through East Wyndham.

Field's camera drifts through the proceedings, catching a furtive remark here, a telling glance there, deep-rooted urges about to surface.

Amid the adult angst, the small fry seem oddly serene. It's as if they realize who the real children of the story are.

Award-worthy performances and taut direction and screenwriting make this my early pick for the best film at TIFF '06.

Peter Howell's bet for the TO FIlm Fest, Sep 06 (Toronto Star)